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<title>A Gladiator's Name by Delirious21</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25025374">A Gladiator's Name</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delirious21/pseuds/Delirious21'>Delirious21</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers: Prime</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Gladiators</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:33:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>512</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25025374</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delirious21/pseuds/Delirious21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This was not his first fight, but far from his last. In the end, death is replaced by cheers of the living. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Literally the description of one of Megatronus' early to-the-death gladiator fights.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Gladiator's Name</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When the “enemy’s” sword slashed Megatronus’ chest, a hush fell over the crowd. It wasn’t like him to bleed. The energon was nothing new to him, but for them, it was his fall from god-hood. He wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>supposed </span>
  </em>
  <span>to bleed. If he bled, he wasn’t worth idolism. Megatronus staggered back, a servo clamping over the wound. Jaw clenched and fists closed, he lunged. The crowd roared. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The “enemy” gladiator stuck in the arena was caught off guard. She took a left hook to the jaw and when she stumbled, dropping her sword, Megatronus kicked her knees in. They popped and cracked, the sound of a pick-axe on untapped rock. Her scream echoed through the stadium, and the crowd swallowed it as if they starved. The “enemy” fell on her ass and fumbled for her sword, but it was too far and Megatronus too close. He fell over her like a cosmic storm, pede crushing her throat as he ground his heel down. Her servos scrambled and scratched his leg and he relented. Relief was a brief glimmer on the femme’s malformed faceplates. Megatronus towered over her, bemused as she struggled to get up. Adrenaline flooded his systems, the fierce beat of his spark distracting from the gash crossing his chassis. Elated and buzzing, he dropped an elbow on the other’s back and she crumbled, barely able to kneel. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was pathetic, but the fight was over. It was the second she lost her ground and her sword. Megatronus knew the look of stubborn defiance in her optics, even as her frame trembled: furiously awaiting execution. The crowd was frantic when he retrieved her sword from the dust. They knew what was coming. Every senator, every mech and femme with their greedily stuffed pockets, and every coddled sparkling. Megatronus </span>
  <em>
    <span>felt </span>
  </em>
  <span>it, roiling in his spark and sending electricity to the tips of his fingers. His fingers clasped on the cheap, uncultured leather handle. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her helm did not detach with the first powerful stroke. It dropped, cheek against chest, and dangled by severed energon lines and fat tendons of muscle. The crowd’s helm rolled, like an ancient, virulent beast. Megatronus stabbed the bloody sword into the dirt and threw up his arms. He strut in circles around the corpse as femmes threw him crystal flowers and charms and mechs hooted his name. When he opened his mouth, the stadium fell silent, everyone eager to hear him. What, they craved, would their champion say?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Megatronus loved it, the enraptured, lustful, gaping mouths with their lolling tongues and screamed confessions. It made him forget the body, still spilling energon, and the wide, glaring optics of the dead. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He threw a fist in the air and roared, “Where are your gods? I bleed and I kill for you! Do they?” He turned and strode out of the stadium. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Even when the doors to the arena closed, big steel slabs, he could hear their chant. It shook the colosseum and echoed like a growl through the underground tunnels. His name, on the tongues of his enemies, his worshipers. </span>
</p>
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